New Assistance from the American Kidney Fund for Patients on Part D

The American Kidney Fund (AKF) has announced a new program that assists qualified dialysis patients who participate in Medicare Part D with the costs of prescribed bone disease medications. The program helps with the coverage gap, known as the donut hole, as well as the patients' share of costs before reaching the gap. Before reaching the coverage gap, patients on Part D pay a monthly premium and 25% of the cost of their medicine. Once in the gap, patients pay 100% of medicine costs until they are through the gap.

Qualified patients may receive up to $2,000 per year in prescription assistance. The medications covered include Fosrenol, Hectorol, Phoslo, Renagel, Sensipar and Zemplar. LaVarne A Burton, Chief Executive Officer of the American Kidney Fund, stated, "In the future, we hope to be able to introduce additional programs that will assist dialysis patients with paying for other types of medication under Part D." He continued, "Bone disease is just one of the co-morbid conditions associated with kidney disease. These other conditions, which include cardiovascular disease and anemia, require medications that can be very expensive. Kidney failure imposes great economic hardships on many people, and through our programs, we are working to ease the burden."

Qualifications for the program, called the Medicare Part D Grant Program for Prescription Bone Disease Products, can be found on the Kidney Fund website at http://www.kidneyfund.org/fpa_Medicare-D.asp. A program application is available to be downloaded and printed. The program can be reached on the phone at 800-638-8299. Patients must be low-income and have exhausted other means of aid.

Last year, the Kidney Fund provided over $81 million in grant assistance to 63,500 people, nearly one-fifth of the nation's dialysis patients and is the nation's most important source of direct financial assistance to kidney patients. The website has information on a wide range of assistance programs for dialysis patients. It is also an excellent source of information about kidney disease. All low-income kidney patients, not only those on Medicare, should explore this website.

Created April 19, 2007